My memory of the dream picks up with me and Dan, sitting at the dining table. Keira came in holding a little bong, as if she'd found a new toy and wasn't the least bit suspicious of its actual usage. Dan took it from her calmly and put it on the table, asking her to go brush her teeth and get ready for bed. When she was out of the room, it was as if she was out of the dream and Dan loaded the bong and we started to smoke. We sat for a while, sharing company and smoking casually. Then Keira returned. There was a brief feeling of being caught, then Dan decided that he didn't want to react, so he didn't try to hide what he was doing. Keira acted with disgust when she saw her dad smoking. She whined that it was gross and that he shouldn't do it. Beyond that, she didn't ask about what he was smoking or why he was using the thing that her mom always told her was a "spinach cooker". She was nonplussed, besides berating him for smoking, and then she was off to bed.
With Keira asleep, we mulled around the apartment. I checked the space weather website, as I often do, to find out if there was going to be an Aurora. In fact, there was. It was noted as being visible over Maine, New York, and soon, Seattle. I wanted to call my mom to tell her to look for it, but it was very early in the morning and I knew she was sleeping. With great excitement, I went to the window and tried to see the sky, amidst a backdrop of downtown high-rise buildings. We lived very high up in one of the skyscrapers and even so far above the city, the light pollution made it difficult to see the stars and the sky. But as I looked, I began to notice faint light pulses in the dark of the night sky. I lost my shit, running around the apartment, urging Dan to join me on the roof of the building. We were in our pajamas and it was really cold out, so we rushed into the bedroom to find some clothes to put on. I was simultaneously calling close friends and trying to explain to them what an Aurora was and that they needed to go outside and look, and also trying to pull on multiple layers of pants. But my pajama pants were baggy and the only pants I could find were skinny jeans. It was an impossible task, so I eventually abandoned it and grabbed a wool blanket instead. Dan was worried about leaving Keira but I reminded him that we were only going to the roof and that we'd be back in no time. On the way out the door, I scrambled to find my wool coat and eventually settled on one of Dan's.
Out in the corridor, we headed to the elevators. Despite the late hour, the hallways were filled with people - students, mostly. We were living in a tall building that was dorms for a college, and it was the weekend, so students were milling about and also there were long lines for the elevators. We ran to another elevator, trying to find one with a shorter line. Before too long, we were lost in the corridor that was shaped like a giant maze. I didn't know where we were, but we did find an elevator that was just loading and there was enough room for Dan and I and now Rick? who had joined us. We crowded on and the elevator labored us up to the roof. We got out in the rooftop corridor and headed to go outside, but I could already see the light sky of morning, through the windows. It was dawn and the sky was too light to see the Aurora anymore. We were so hugely disappointed. I had a total freakout, screaming and berating all the goddamn college kids for being in my way and making it take way too long to get up here. I was pissed.
There was more in the dream here but I don't remember it.
Then Dan and I got back in the elevator to head back down. There was a bit of confusion as we hadn't figured out that the safety cage had to be closed in order for us to be able to make the elevator work. We went in and out of a few elevators, trying to find one that would work, before we realized the deal with the cage. But then we got in one that didn't have a cage. We were several floors down by this point. We were the only ones in the car and there were no doors on this one, and windows all around the other sides. We could see the floors we were passing. It was strange and cool. But then the elevator stopped and was acting strange. It shuddered violently and then a 5-foot length of chain fell down and into the elevator, swiping me as it fell. By the time I realized what it was, the elevator suddenly jarred and dropped one full floor. I was startled and screamed. Then it stopped and we stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. Dan hit some buttons, to try to get us off at the nearest floor. But the elevator was unresponsive. It shuddered again and another length of chain fell in, this time something like 15 feet worth. We shifted our weight and suddenly the elevator was in free-fall. It fell like 4 stories or so and I was screaming the whole time. Then it stopped falling fast and sort of drifted down another story to the bottom of the elevator shaft. We were about 6 feet below the ground-floor of the building and needed to find a way to climb out. I was terrified - both in shock from the fall and also because I had heard so many stories of people getting cut in half and crushed by elevator doors when trying to escape malfunctioning cars. There was a woman on the platform, however, and she stooped down and helped us out. Once out of the elevator, I was so in shock I couldn't speak. I was catatonic.
I followed Dan as he marched through the halls, headed for the Dean of the school's office. We sat down at her desk while someone went to fetch her. I was still beyond speech, but I had an anger welling in me. The Dean arrived and Dan began explaining what had happened. She seemed rather unsympathetic, silently noting that we were sitting here before her, unhurt and only mildly traumatized. But Dan wasn't ready to let this go. He grabbed a pen and wrote down a long string of numbers, $116,347. Then he turned the paper to face the Dean and slid it across the table to her, looking at her directly and calmly. She asked what the number was and he explained that it was the amount of compensation that he expected to receive for the atrocity. Then she asked how he had arrived at this particular figure and Dan launched into an hilarious tirade. He began citing all sorts of mystical, esoteric texts and formulas, explaining what they represented. He brought in references to freemasonry, chaos magic, and shamanism. The Dean was so aghast, she had no response. Dan just continued to go off, getting up and walking to the library that shared her office. He began pulling down all sorts of books to back up his formulas and I just sat there, silently in shock. Eventually, he got lost in the books and the Dean turned to me and asked me to clarify what had happened to us that we deserved all this compensation. My emotions finally burst forth and I explained in harrowing detail what we'd experienced in the elevator. As I explained it, I was reliving it, only the elevator was a little different this time and my companion was a woman, instead of Dan. When the elevator was in free-fall, we fell much further than we had before and the woman was so terrified, she climbed the grating in the back of the elevator, hoping that when we hit the bottom, she would have more time to react. I was nervous that the impact at the bottom would tear her little fingers off, that she was gripping the steel grate with. I also made sure to back Dan up, by offering my own little taste of magic. I started tracing out sigils and muttering spells on her desktop, trying to freak her out. Finally, the Dean retreated to decide how to handle the situation and I wandered off to the cafeteria, in search of food.
Missing the Aurora, and a Harrowing Elevator Free-Fall...
